We've got a jam packed episode for you this week! New Cabaret sensation, Tony DeSare stops by to talk about his new CD, his show at the Oak room, and plays two songs live in our studio! We've also got two one-man shows playing in rep at the SoHo, Michael Laurence in "Krapp 39" and Mark Sam Rosenthal in (deep breath) "Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire"
We've also got some live recordings from our first Live Event (Don't miss our next one, Feb. 8th!) James Barbour showed up by Surprise to sing, and we've got him singing a never recorded song by Frank Wildhorn, as well as selections from APAC's production of "Ragtime", Prospect Theatre Company's new show, "The Dome" and a few selections from some of our fantastic open-mic performers!
So sit back, relax, and enjoy!

On the Boards

Blanche Survives Katarina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire

Mark Sam Rosenthal comes in to talk about playing Blanche Dubois in his new One-Man (One-Woman?) Show!

Here is what the press release has to say:

Writer/Performer Mark Sam Rosenthal, a comedic improviser trained with New York’s renowned UprightCitizens Brigade, wades into the swamp of his Louisiana roots with a politically incorrect, gender-bending new solo show, Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire. Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire is presented by Kind Strangers and Darren Lee Cole Theatricals.

Blanche Survives Katrina, an award winning production featured at the 2008 New York Int’l Fringe Festival, imagines that Tennessee Williams’ tragic heroine, Blanche DuBois, has neither aged nor left New Orleans. She was there when Katrina hit; she was sent to the Superdome; she was evacuated to Shreveport and entangled in the heartless bureaucracy of FEMA. She gets involved with drugs, is adopted by an Arizona megachurch, and is â€˜job-placedâ€™ at a Popeye’s cash register â€“ having for good reason been permanently barred from teaching young schoolboys. Hers is a refugee story whose politics and pathos you have read but never experienced through the eyes of the desperately deliberately fragile, alcoholic, codependent, sex-addicted Blanche DuBois â€“ Americaâ€™s most broken womanâ„¢.

Sunday Spotlight

James Barbour Performing “Measure of a Man” by Frank Wildhorn

James Barbour (Jane Eyre, Beauty and the Beast, Tale of Two Cities, Urinetowm) stopped by to surprise the audience with two songs, including this little heard (and never recorded) song by Frank Wildhorn.

James Barbour was interviewed in our season finale, Vol. 224 His Sardi’s run was a sold-out success, and he starts a new run, this Saturday (Jan. 29th) called “Love Songs”. Don’t miss it! Find out more information at www.JamesBarbour.com

The Callboard

I received a great email from a listener I wanted to share with everyone.

Dear Michael,

I live in Israel and I’ve been listening to your podcast for the last two years. I recently was listening to your latest podcast and heard Kevin Davenport reading the letter that the agent in Israel wrote about the fact that the show in Beer Sheva had to be postponed due to the recent war in the south of Israel. I just wanted to let Kevin know that I was touched by his words and by the fact that he devoted time to discussing what is going on on our side of the world. I am very involved in community theater in Israel and next year I will be volunteering in the south of Israel doing theater with the kids who have been living under rocket attacks for over eight years.

I love listening to your podcast. Keep up the good work!

Your fan,

Liel Zahavi-Asa

In the Heights Contest

Now’s your chance to share your love…and win! Freestyle about the one you love. Then submit the video and you could win a romantic trip to see IN THE HEIGHTS on Valentine’s Day.

The videos will be judged by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Freestyle Love Supreme and the best overall freestyle will win a special Valentine’s Day date package: Dinner for 2 at Tony’s Di Napoli, a hot New York restaurant and a pair of tickets to IN THE HEIGHTS!

AVENUE Q and TITLE OF SHOW Creators join PS 107 Discussion

How do you convince a producer that a show featuring puppets for an adult audience and one about writing a Broadway musical will ever succeed in a theater world focused on risk aversion? On Wednesday, February 25 at 7:30 p.m. on the 4th Floor of PS 107 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Framji Minwalla, visiting professor of drama at Fordham University, will moderate a panel that includes some of the most successful off-off Broadway talents to ever make it to The Great White Way.

Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell, creators and stars in the Obie-award winning musical Title of Show, will be joined by their female lead, Susan Blackwell. Jeff Whitty, Tony Award- winning playwright (Best Musical 2004) of Avenue Q and Tales of the City will be joined by Bobby Lopez, Tony-award winning composer and lyricist for Avenue Q. Doug Aibel, artistic director of the Vineyard Theater, which took both of these shows to Broadway, will round out the panel. Anecdotes, spontaneous song and the trials and tribulations of creating musical theater that goes beyond the norm will be center stage in this evening of theatrical insight.

Broadway Unbound will be held on the 4th Floor of PS 107, which is located at 13th Street and 8th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Tickets are $15 online at www.ps107.org or at the door.

Listening Room

Julie Foldesi – Bluer Sky

Julie Foldesi (Lincoln Center’s South Pacific) will be doing a showcase performer at the next Sunday Spotlight on Feb. 8th, playing songs for her full-length debut, This Part of Town.

Julie is an NYC-based artist originally from North Carolina. And this album definitely resonates this ‘city meets country’ as a theme. Julie met up with CT bluegrass musician/arranger/producer Dick Neal, and has found this, her sound. It’s sort of funky bluegrass, or bluesy bluegrass or country with a message. It is her first full length album. A fantastic debut!

Cabaret Corner

Tony DeSare – Radio Show

Mercer, Moon River and Me

Tony DeSare just released his third CD, Radio Show, and is doing an engagement at the Oak Room from Feb. 2nd through Feb 21st. He stopped by the studio to talk about all of this, and play a couple of his original tunes from the new CD Live, in our studio!

Sunday Spotlight

Featured Performances

The Astoria Performing Arts Center is presenting “Ragtime” from February 5th-Feb. 22nd. Janine Ayn Romano, playing Sara, stopped by the Spotlight to sing “Your Daddy’s Son” from the show. Be sure to catch the production!

The Prospect Theatre Company is presenting a new show, The Dome, from Jan. 31st to March. 1st. One of the cast members stopped by to perform a song from the show!

Allan Harris was our contest winner. He sang his original composition, “Cross That River” from a show of the same name that he is writing. We play that song in the podcast!

Jason Watson sang the song, “Just One Night” from “Doonesbury, the Musical” in the Open Mic. While he didn’t end up in the top three (How did the judges choose? Everyone was so good!) He did get something great… James Barbour was so impressed, he asked Jason to perform with him at his new Sardi’s gig!

On the Boards

Krapp 39

Michael Laurence (Talk Radio) is OBSESSED with the play, “Krapps Last Tape”. So much so, that it inspired a one man show of his own. He stopped by the studio to discuss the very interesting creative process that resulted in “Krapp 39”, now playing at the SOHO Playhouse.

Here’s what the press release says about the show:

Originally produced by Cliplight Theater, this production of Krapp, 39 follows an award winning run at The 2008 New York International Fringe Festival and a celebrated extension in the Fringe Encore Series. Krapp, 39 is written and performed by Michael Laurence. Michael was recently seen on Broadway as Stu Noonan in Eric Bogosianâ€™s Talk Radio. Some other notable credits: Michael Hollingerâ€™s Opus at Primary Stages, NYC, the 2008 Off-Broadway revival of Lee Blessing’s Two Rooms, Starbuck in The Rainmaker at Arena Stage, Tooth of Crime and Book of Days at The Signature Theater, NYC, and Eric Bogosianâ€™s Humpty Dumpty at The McCarter Theater.

For more information on “Krapp 39” visit the official website at www.krapp39.com

On that date, playing its 8,732nd performance at The Majestic Theatre (247 West 44th Street), it became the first Broadway production ever to have run 21 years. The cast and crew celebrated with a custom-designed cake from Cupcake Cafe in honor of finally being of “legal” age on Broadway! MORE HERE

BroadwayWorld has learned that the planned San Francisco ‘Best of Broadway’ series world premiere engagement of the musical EVER AFTER, based on the popular 1998 Twentieth Century Fox film has been indefinitely postponed. Shorenstein Hays Nederlander Theatres, overseen by Carole Shorenstein Hays and Robert Nederlander, was set to present EVER AFTER this April as part of their 2009 season.

EVER AFTER producer Adam Epstein (Hairspray, The Wedding Singer, Cry-Baby) said in a statement, “The previously announced production of EVER AFTER has been moved from this season’s line up as the creative team continues to develop the musical for a future production.”

hi, in this podcast you mentioned that more people were using the mp3 version. For some reason I havnt been able to download 302 or 303 through itunes aac version, so i got the mp3 instead. i usually listen on my ipod and like the sections in the aac versions. i have been able to download all the other episodes just not those 2. is there a problem with them? or is it just my computer?

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Interested in what a major in Theatre and Business Arts could do for you?
Contact program director, Michael Gilboe at
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and he’ll set up a time to talk with you about your individual needs.

Stephanie Klemons (Dance Captain) and Andrew Chapelle each swing nightly for the mega-hit, Hamilton. They talk about the whole process and their acting breaks before Hamilton. We hear two new songs from STRING, the new musical Adam Gwon is writing [...]